Fatten up my L75

[sillypony]

Hello,

Well i've done my homework, but i am at a loss over my L075. He (i believe "he") has been with me since november, and has grown a TON, but his little belly is STILL convex. All my water parameters are pristine, and he has plenty of caves and a nice sand substrate. His tankmates are: a L264 (which he has gotten bigger than), 3 queen loaches, and a few weeks ago, a school of danios and 2 cory cats. (yes i know, my loach and cory schools are too small, i'm working on it) Anyways, they all live in a 55 gallon, and get a ton of shrimp pellets each night (easily 6 or 7) and some in the morning, 2+ algae wafers broken in pieces, and some frozen blood worm, brine shrimp or peas on occassion.

None of my fish eat veggies, and there is driftwood to munch on. The L264 is nice and plump (in fact I was told she is probably mature now as she looked gravid), and she tends to eat less than the L75 does. However, the sultan plec doesn't swim around much that I can see, she picks a cave and tends ot hang out. The para on the other hand, LOVESSSSSSS to swim. He is ALL OVER as soon as the lights go out. He does laps of the tank, all the way to the top and then down across. And he hangs on the glass every so often as well... Is he just using up his nutrients more quickly b/c he's so active?

I almost feel like he needs another feeding in the EARLY hours of the morning, before the sun comes up ( he doesn't eat much in the day time) to help fill him up after all the exercise. However, this just isn't really feasible for me.

My LFS told me to up the bloodworm feeding, so this week we've started feeding that every night, to see if that tempts my lil guy. He thought that my loaches may be out-competing the para for food. I'm not sure about that (the plecs tend to boss the loaches around as they're only queen loaches, and rather shy with there only being 3 of them) but the extra nutriton can't hurt.

Is there anything else I can/should try for him?

LeeAnna

[apistomaster]

I think it was good advice to feed frozen blood worms at lights out. I would also recommend trying earth worm sticks from:
www.kensfish.com
www.aquaticeco.com

[drpleco]

was this fish ever dewormed? An otherwise healthy fish can survive with an intestinal worm, but won't be able to use food as efficiently because it is sharing with the worm. I have 6 L075's and all were initially skinny but significantly fattened up within 1-2 months. Both the males and females have nice round bellies and have grown thicker other areas as well. 5 months and still skinny means that something is probably not right. Now, that might mean that the fish isn't competing well enough, or not getting the right food, but it could also mean an internal problem.

Prazipro is a great medication for deworming plecos and it is extremely gentle. The only side effect I've seen is that it slightly reduces appetite and lowers the oxygen levels in the tank. So make sure to feed attractive foods (bloodworms) and increase aeration during treatment. I do three doses 4 days apart (day one, day 5, day 9). The reason for this is that the medicine kills owrms but not eggs and you need to give the eggs time to hatch before they can be killed. Three doses generally accomplishes this.

Good luck!!!

Andy

[sillypony]

Andy,

wow, i never thought of that. Would he really have worms and NOT give them to the sultan plec though? They live together, and often share a cave... If he doesn't have worms, will the meds harm him (or the others in the tank, since he lives with the other plec and the loaches)? If the blood worms are all he needs to fatten up, how long should it take? (iow, could i see how the blood worms do first, and then de-worm him if the better food doesn't work?)

If he needs to be quarantined to do this, it will definitely have to wait at least a week or two, as all my tanks are full atm.

Apisto- I'm definitely going to order some of those earthworm sticks though, if for no other reason than to add some variety to the fish's diets. Thanks for the suggestion!

Thanks for all the help!

LeeAnna

[apistomaster]

It is easily possible for your L75 to be infected by internal parasitic worms.
It is not alwys part of many parasitic worms to directly infect another fish because the life cycle of many worms is so complex and may involve several intermediate hosts. A frequent type of this is a life cycle that includes snails of a particular genera, birds then fish. So it is possible for the fish to not be able to directly infect other fish. I highly recommend using PraziPro as has been recommended. I would also soak foods like earthworm sticks in Prazi in addition to treating the water. It never hurts to deliver the drugs internally whenever possible. This is the method I use to clear wild discus of their parasites although I also use another worm drug, flubendazole because no one drug can control all parasites.
These are, as a class, very safe drugs when used as directed.